Skip to main content

Item of the Week: The 1938 Washington Quarter

This 1938 Washington quarter is graded PR-64 by NGC. (Images courtesy Heritage Auctions)

A better date when it comes to a Philadelphia Washington quarter can be a relative matter. The 1938 Washington quarter is certainly better than the 1964 but with a total mintage of 564,341,347, it is probably easy to make the case that almost any quarter produced is better than the 1964.

In fact, it is not easy to make a case that any Philadelphia Washington quarter is especially good. The lowest mintage of the Philadelphia Washington quarters turned out to be the 1932, which had a total mintage of 5,404,000. You do not see many quarter mintages like that anymore but it is also fair to point out that it is no longer 1932.

Even the low total of the 1932 comes with questions since it was the first year of the design. That usually means some additional saving and that seems to have been the case for the 1932 as it is $45 in MS-60, while an MS-65 is $250. It does not bode well for other Philadelphia Washington quarters if the availability of the other dates is likely to go up and prices down from the level of the 1932.

Of course, there are some dates that would have much higher mintages and others where the totals would not be all that much higher. The 1938 is in that second group, as its mintage was a still-low 9,480,045.

Of course, it is not the mintage that actually matters in terms of price as the real issue is how many examples of a certain date still exist and in what grade. Unlike the 1932, there was no special reason to save the 1938 and there was probably very little saving at the time for a number of reasons.

It must be remembered that back in 1938, the coin collectors of the country were in the process of enormous change. The first holders to house complete sets were appearing and there was also vastly improved information about coins and their prices. It was an exciting time but there were certainly many more exciting coins to be found other than a 1938 quarter. The New York Subway Hoard, which was purchased by Littleton Coin Company back in the 1990s, actually began in the 1940s and it included examples of dates like the 1896-S, 1901-S, 1913-S and 1916 Standing Liberty quarters. Certainly, if they were found in the 1940s, they were circulating in 1938. No matter how nice the 1938 was, any of those dates and some others as well would have been a much better choice to save than a 1938.

It also has to be remembered that the nation was still emerging from the Great Depression. Perhaps more people could afford to set aside a quarter in 1938 than in 1933, but the fact is that if they had not started a collection back in 1932 during some of the worst economic times, they were not very likely to be saving quarters in 1938.

It all adds up to a situation where the number of Mint State 1938 quarters has to be seen as suspect at best. The current prices would seem to indicate that others have discovered that the 1938 might well prove to be better as it lists for $90 in MS-60, which is much higher than the lower-mintage 1932. In MS-65, however, the current price is $210, which is lower than the 1932 but, for a Philadelphia Washington quarter, it is actually a very high price for the grade; it is the top MS-65 listing for a Philadelphia Washington quarter.

Numismatic Guaranty Corporation has found 192 examples of the 1938 in MS-65, 97 in MS-66 and 20 in MS-67. At Professional Coin Grading Service, the total is 342 in MS-65, 178 in MS-66 and 20 in MS-67.

The totals sound high but, for a Philadelphia Washington quarter, they are not. In the case of dates in the 1940s and 1950s, totals in the thousands in grades like MS-65 are not unheard of. In other cases, the number of coins graded MS-66 is actually higher than the number in MS-65. The 1938 shows it is tougher by its small numbers and the fact that the numbers keep getting smaller the higher the grade.

Read more Item of the Week features.

The post Item of the Week: The 1938 Washington Quarter appeared first on Numismatic News.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Royal Mint Partners with NGC to Offer Certified UK Coins

The Royal Mint, the official mint of the United Kingdom, has partnered with Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), the world's largest third-party coin grading service. For the first time, The Royal... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Record High Gold Price?

This week, the price of gold reached an all-time high price against the U.S. dollar. It closed Wednesday this week on the COMEX at $1,953.50 per troy ounce, well above even intraday gold prices during the previous peak in September 2011. Gold had previously set all-time high record prices against almost every other world currency last week. However, this record-high gold price needs to be noted with an asterisk. The reason the asterisk is needed is that the value of the U.S. dollar itself has declined over the years. As a consequence, the price of gold this week, if compared to a U.S. dollar of consistent purchasing power, is lower than the previous peak price in September 2011 of about $1,924 and even further below the January 1980 peak of about $850. To give you some idea of the instability of the value of the U.S. dollar, just compare the M2 definition of the U.S. money supply, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: January 1980:      ...

Community Voice Response: Jan. 1, 2020

From the Dec. 13 Numismatic News E-NewsLetter What are your numismatic resolutions for the new year? Here are some answers sent in from our E-Newsletter readers.   One of my numismatic resolutions is to do what I can to make sure coin collector’s concerns are represented and NOT deep-pocket businesses. Ron Brown Address Withheld   My resolution is to encourage everyone in the world to never again buy from the U.S. Mint, considering the 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof fiasco. Steve McGowan Algonac, Mich.   First, I want to pay for the coins I purchased in 2019. Secondly, I want to pre-order my 2020 silver eagles graded. Merry Christmas to all! Timothy Kenyon Mechanicsburg, Pa.   One of my resolutions is not to end up with 20 2020 ASE’s in different holders/OGP/signatures as I did in 2019. Donovan Hamilton Address Withheld   We want to bring the enjoyment of the hobby to as many young people as possible and to keep the future of numismatics brig...